Singing Bridge public access still under contamination advisory

DEQ lists reason for contamination as “Other”

WHITNEY TOWNSHIP — The Singing Bridge Public Access in Whitney Township was one of four Arenac County beaches on the Saginaw Bay hit with a Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) contamination advisory this summer, but it’s the only one of the four still under the advisory.

According to the DEQ Web site, the Singing Bridge access has not had its advisory lifted and has surpassed the limit of 130 E. Coli per 100 milliliters for a 30-day mean every time its waters were monitored since July 8.

Prior to July 8, the water at the public access was higher than the DEQ daily mean limit of 300 E. Coli per 100 milliliters (ml) three times.

The beach monitoring, which is done by the Central Michigan District Health Department (CMDHD), began this year on June 8. Singing Bridge first failed the test on June 10, when it was shown to have 487.81 E. Coli per 100 ml.

However, while the beach has consistently shown high levels of E. Coli throughout the summer, it’s 30-day mean, which surpassed the DEQ limit every test from July 8 to Sept. 9, does appear to be slowly declining over the last month, despite the Sept. 9 test yielding a higher volume of bacteria than the Sept. 2 test (Sept. 9 yielded 176.05, Sept. 2 yielded 173.14). The late summer increase notwithstanding, The Sept. 9 test was showed 150 E. Coli per 100 ml fewer than the Aug. 19 test, which yielded 325.67 E. Coli per 100 ml in the CMDHD test.

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